Deposed? I couldn't be happier! I wouldn't even be a dog to the crown prince.

Inside the East Palace, the early autumn sunlight streamed through the bright floor-to-ceiling windows, lazily spreading across the goose-down carpet.

Li Chengqian lay back on a specially made, ergonomically designed, soft recliner, his eyes slightly closed. He let out a comfortable groan, enjoying the gentle massage of Wu Meiniang's soft, boneless hands on his temples. The air was filled with a faint scent of ambergris, mixed with the subtle fragrance emanating from Wu Meiniang's fingertips, making him almost completely succumb to this gentle embrace.

He originally thought that by instilling the logic of the "Chairman of the Tang Dynasty" into the old man, he could finally realize his ultimate ideal of "doing things for the Emperor when there's work to do, and sunbathing when there's nothing to do."

However, the bright red dedicated telephone next to them, which represented the highest level of emergency communication, suddenly started ringing wildly.

"Ring ring—!"

The shrill sound of the bell shattered the tranquility of the hall; the vibrations were so intense that even the white jade teacup beside it trembled slightly.

Li Chengqian's eyelids twitched violently twice. He swore that the ringtone carried the distinctively volatile tone of Li Shimin. He sighed deeply, his right hand trembling as he reached out from under the warm, thin blanket, as if searching for some deadly poison, and reluctantly pressed the speakerphone button.

"You unfilial son! Get your head over here now! Immediately! Right now!"

Li Shimin's almost deafening roar instantly filled the entire side hall. The vibration of the loudspeaker even stirred up a fine dust cloud.

"Those damned traitors! They're robbing me of my money! They're destroying my resources! The national treasury is empty after all this money has been poured in, and what kind of terrible idea did you give me?"

Li Chengqian rested his hands behind his head, showing no intention of even sitting up. He glanced sideways at the eerie green holographic projection in the air above the hall, a helpless smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Father, please calm down. The sun is so warm here, I really don't want to move. Besides, I've already said it before, you're the chairman now. If the chairman has to be on the front lines in everything, what's the point of having an executive director?"

"You dare talk back to me?" Li Shimin on the other end of the phone was clearly slamming his fist on the table, the dull thud echoing through the wires and making Li Chengqian's ears ache. "The indices have collapsed! Shipping is all in the red! My empire is shrinking! And you're still lying there sunbathing?"

"Father, this is a typical example of feudal remnant thinking."

Li Chengqian yawned and slowly spoke into the microphone.

"Spending money to rescue the market is a stupid method only nouveau riche would do. Since the other side wants to play tricks, we have to be even more tricky than them. Calm down first. Since I don't intend to go there, I will send someone more capable to take care of things for you."

As he spoke, he patted Wu Meiniang's hand, signaling her to stop.

"Father, please keep an eye on things and make sure the gold in the national treasury isn't all thrown into the sea to feed the fish. Your son has to go now; long-distance calls are quite expensive."

"Li Chengqian, you—!"

Before Li Shimin could finish shouting, Li Chengqian had already cleanly and decisively cut off the communication.

The side hall returned to silence, but this silence was tinged with a sense of impending doom, as if a heavy rain was about to fall.

Wu Meiniang stood quietly beside the recliner, a hint of doubt flickering in her crystal-clear phoenix eyes. Although she was exceptionally intelligent, she was still shrouded in mystery when faced with this "digital monster" that could bring the entire empire to a standstill and leave even the greatest emperors of all time helpless.

"Your Highness, are these green lines... truly more terrifying than the blades of the Great Snow Dragon Riders?"

Wu Meiniang asked softly, her voice carrying a hint of awe for the unknown.

Li Chengqian sat up abruptly and casually pulled over a whiteboard that was originally used to teach palace maids to read. He grabbed a specially made black charcoal pencil and drew a round, innocent-looking egg on the whiteboard.

"Meiniang, do you want to learn this? It's a skill that can devour people without spitting out their bones."

Wu Meiniang keenly noticed the fleeting depth in Li Chengqian's eyes. Without hesitation, she nodded, her body leaning forward unconsciously, extremely focused, her slender hands unconsciously clenching the hem of her dress.

"This is a game about 'borrowing eggs'."

Li Chengqian pointed to the eggs on the whiteboard, speaking very quickly.

"There's this scoundrel named Cui who doesn't have a single egg. But he knows the chickens in the greenhouse will get sick in a couple of days, and the price of eggs will definitely drop. So he went to one of our farmers who has eggs and said, 'Brother, lend me your eggs. I'll give you five coins in interest, and I'll return an identical egg to you in three days.'"

Li Chengqian then drew a dejected farmer next to him.

"After getting the eggs, Cui immediately sold them for ten coins at the current market price. At that time, he had ten coins in cash, but the eggs were not actually his. This is called 'short selling'."

Wu Zetian frowned slightly as she rapidly processed the traditional accounting logic of the Tang Dynasty in her mind.

"What if egg prices really do drop?"

"Clever." Li Chengqian gave him an approving look. "If the price of eggs drops to five coins a day in two days, Cui will use the ten coins he has to buy an egg at the market and return it to the farmer. He will not only return the egg but also make a profit of five coins. That's what they're doing. They borrowed the shipping index from the Tang Dynasty to sell, then frantically created panic, hoping to buy it back and return it to us once the index plummeted."

"Then... what if the price of eggs goes up?" Wu Meiniang pressed, her eyes growing brighter.

"If the price goes up, his contract expires, and he has to buy it back at a high price to pay off his debt. If the price of eggs rises to twenty coins, he will have to pay ten coins out of his own pocket. If we buy up all the eggs in the market and he can't buy them, he will have to beg us to sell them to him at the price we set. This is called 'short squeeze' or 'catching a turtle in a jar'."

Li Chengqian put down his charcoal pencil and turned to stare intently at Wu Meiniang.

During that half-minute explanation, he clearly saw the change in Wu Meiniang's eyes.

The initial confusion in the face of the unknown was rapidly dissolving as logic was being dissected. Then, a bloodthirsty light, born of extreme excitement, erupted from those phoenix eyes as bright as stars.

As she looked at the circled "Cui Shi" on the whiteboard, a cruel yet elegant smile involuntarily crept onto her lips.

In that instant, Li Chengqian saw in Wu Meiniang an ambition that was completely ahead of its time. It was the intuition of a apex predator. She didn't need to understand those complex mathematical formulas; she was born with the thrill of wielding power over life and death in the game of capital.

She was no longer the little woman who only massaged shoulders in the harem.

At this moment, she resembled a queen who had just awakened in this cyber jungle filled with steel and data, hungry and searching for prey. The powerful aura generated by her awakened lust for power even made this spacious side hall seem somewhat crowded.

"Your Highness, I understand."

Wu Meiniang's voice became cold and decisive, each word carrying a chilling, resolute quality.

"They want to use our influence to make money, so let's burn all those 'eggs'. Not only will they be unable to buy them, they'll also have to lose their ancestral property."

Looking at her eagerness to enter the fray, Li Chengqian felt both gratified and a chilling shock ran down his spine. This kind of overwhelming attack was, for an ambitious person, the most potent poison in the world.

He turned around and pulled out a thick book with a jet-black leather cover from the top shelf.

Printed on it was a line of gold lettering, its oppressive effect created by the refraction of light and shadow—"Macroeconomics and Short Selling Mechanisms".

This is something he keeps hidden away in the system.

Li Chengqian casually tossed the book into Wu Meiniang's arms. The heavy book thudded onto the brocade, as if a prelude to the collapse of the old Tang Dynasty order.

"Go, take my edict to the palace. The old man's staff is full of bumpkins who only know how to wield a knife; he needs a ruthless figure who can take charge. Give those ignorant old bumpkins a real lesson in capital."

Li Chengqian casually tossed a thick book, "Macroeconomics and Short Selling Mechanisms," into Wu Meiniang's arms: "Go, take my imperial edict to the palace. Give those ignorant old bumpkins a real lesson in capital."